Town Square

PA Online is censoring discussion on scool board race

Original post made
by Resident, Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Oct 24, 2012

Over the past couple of months in this election season many of the several threads started or from Weekly articls, have been locked, kept for registered users only, or just deleted altogether. From what I have read, most people have been respectful and polite, although many have been very critical. What is wrong with being critical of those who are running for public office? Being critical of political opinions is not the same as being critical of people personally. I can't understand this.

Posted by Bill Johnson
publisher of the Palo Alto Weekly
on Oct 24, 2012 at 5:12 pmBill Johnson is a registered user.

Resident,

Unfortunately, in a tight election race there are people who attempt to influence the outcome through innuendo, false statements or attacks on the integrity of those they oppose. To encourage people to be more accountable for their comments and to be respectful in their dialogue, we limit some topics to those who register. This is a common practice and one that we use frequently when some posters get carried away and cross the line and violate our terms of use.

We will also delete any post that includes copies of emails or statements that we cannot verify or that are potentially taken out of context, or that are nothing more than a slam against one candidate or another.

This is not an unusual standard and is our only way of maintaining a degree of civility on the site.

Thanks for your understanding and help in making it possible for actual discussion on issues rather than rather transparent attempts to denigrate a particular candidate.